The continuous expansion of the Internet, the expansion and sophistication of enterprise computing networks and systems, the proliferation of content stored and accessible over such networks, and numerous other factors continue to drive the need for large sophisticated data storage systems. Consequently, as the demand for data storage continues to increase, larger and more sophisticated storage systems are being designed and deployed. Many large scale data storage systems utilize virtual or physical tape drive systems including arrays of storage media, such as magnetic tape or disk back stores, to which data may be written and stored.
As the number of components, the number of users, and the volume of data increases, so does the size and complexity of the storage systems. For example, a cloud infrastructure may be utilized to provide access to remote storage systems over a network. Conventional systems, however, may fail to ensure the security of data as it is transmitted over the network to a remote cloud device, such as a tape drive. Some such systems send the data unsecured over the network, and the data is only encrypted once it is received at the remote cloud device. Other such systems that attempt to encrypt the data prior to sending it over the network are plagued by performance degradation and slow data transfers. Further, many of these attempts require the data to be decrypted at the remote storage system prior to sending the data to the remote cloud device for storage, where the data is encrypted again. With these conventional systems, data is either transmitted from a source over an unsecured infrastructure to a remote cloud storage system or the data is encrypted at the source in a slow and cumbersome manner before transmission.
It is with these observations in mind, among others, that various aspects of the present disclosure were conceived and developed.